Sup
Not sure if this'll be a decent chapter or not, but we going for it. Next chapter should hopefully be more entertaining.
In any case, you can add me on HSR if you wish.
UID: 801517814
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"Speech"
'Thoughts'
『System』
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"I question how we get ourselves into these weird situations."
The response Hyde received from Stelle was a simple shrug, even then she also had a bit of a helpless look on her face.
The simplify the situation they were in, they had been basically sent into a virtual world that Herta had created together with some supposed colleagues.
They had only just entered the Simulated Universe, as she Herta called it, although she did initially call it the Metaverse.
No wonder he heard Persona music before.
Herta had requested them to go into this virtual space to acquire some information regarding Aeons, which Hyde had come to learn were essentially the gods beings of this world.
In other words, they were Herta's guinea pigs for a test.
Upon entering the Simulated Universe, both Hyde and Stelle found themselves inside of a room that look very much similar to a room Hyde's been before.
If he wasn't mistaken, this was one of the many locations within the space station. He had to admit, despite being a simulation, it felt and look very real.
Sci-fi for ya.
{Herta: Can you two see this message?}
{Herta: If you do, just tap anywhere on the screen}
Soon enough, they both watched as a holographic panel appeared displaying the words above.
Giving a small nod to Hyde, Stelle tapped her finger onto the panel. After a moment of waiting, another message popped up.
{Herta: Alright, perfect!}
{Herta: Your bodies are still sitting in the office. This is a Simulated Universe generated from both of your memories}
{Herta: This is only the Alpha test server, where the features are not fully available}
'Our memories? There's gotta be a limit to that, I got some scary shit in that rabbit hole...'
If this room was made based on their memories of the station, he could only hope they don't use his memories from the past.
For all he knew, Cthulhu or some shit was about to come crashing through the wall and they'd all be fucked.
{Herta: You guys should be able to move around just fine}
{Herta: I want you two to find some monsters to fight, and let's see if any simulated Aeons will notice you}
"Will they even pay attention? I remember something about them not giving two shits about anyone insignificant in their eyes."
Stelle only shrugged her shoulders at this, she too wasn't sure what Herta had in mind. In any case, the both of them did as told.
It didn't take long for them find some Antimatter Legion members to fight, Hyde quickly changed into Zero-One as they both quickly began clearing them out.
What he soon learned was that these simulated enemies provided experience whatsoever, which was acceptable considering they weren't actually real.
Since coming here, his transformations for Zero-One had only recovered by one, which meant he had an hour with Zero-One before he'd need to switch to Kabuto.
Since he wouldn't be able to gain any experience here, he'd rather finish this as soon as possible before he ends up using all four transformations he had left.
"Hyde..."
"Hm? What is... oh, shit."
Hyde finished off the last enemy before hearing Stelle call out to him, when he turned to ask what was wrong, both he and Stelle froze as they saw something frankly terrifying.
Seemingly staring at them through a tear in space was a gigantic entity with both rock and copper or something making up its form.
Debris of copper, amber, and more were continuously raining down from its position as they continued to stare at it.
Neither of them knew what to do, the Aeon in front of them didn't say anything and seemed to be staring at them with its non-existent eyes.
Well, at least they couldn't make out any visible eyes.
The silence was only broken after Hyde managed to squeeze out a few words, even then it was in a hushed tone.
"Herta... what is this?"
They didn't receive any reply, but soon felt the area shake as a loud roar echoed around them. The origin of this was of course the Aeon in front of them.
Thankfully, the figure of the Aeon disappeared just as quickly as that roar appeared. Soon, they were able to properly calm themselves.
"That was scarier than I thought it'd be..."
"No kidding..."
{Herta: Our calculations are correct. Qlipoth, the Aeon of Preservation, has really appeared!}
Both Hyde and Stelle turned their heads to see a rather strange sight, a small purplish-white hovering robot, and with a flower on its head.
The strangest thing of all though was that this robot was carrying around a notepad, one which it was using right now to write on.
"What is this duck bird-looking robot?"
{Herta: Excuse you, this is my personal avatar!}
The robot, which Herta's voice projected out from, turned to face Hyde before shouting this. It then began writing again.
{Herta: So... The revival of both the Aeon of the Trailblaze and the Aeon of Permanence has managed to attract Qlipoth}
{Herta: It seems that by having you two identify as Akivili and Long was the right choice indeed. Make sure to get some more info from them the next time!}
"What do we ask them?" Stelle couldn't help but raise this question. "Is there anything specific you want to know?"
{Herta: Myths of the Aeons, anecdotes, love stories, the origin of the universe... anything will do! Just think of something!}
"Okay, okay. Don't get your panties in a twist." Hyde deadpanned as the robot disappeared into particles. "So, I guess we just keep moving forward. You ready?"
"Ready. Let's go."
With that, they both quickly rushed on.
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As they made their way through the Simulated Universe, there wasn't much of anything to take note of since the beginning.
It eventually came to the point that they'd managed to make their way to the Base Zone of the space station.
In there, they encountered Hyde's first ever boss fight opponent in this world, that motherfucking look at my bow centaur looking deadass.
Hyde had managed to defeat it on his own the first time, so with Stelle here as well this time, defeating it was even easier.
"Finish it, Stelle!"
"On it!"
Stelle quickly rushed forwards as Hyde flipped back and over her, to which Stelle then stopped in front of the dazed Trampler.
"Rules... are made to be broken."
The bat Stelle wielded released a blue wave of energy as it gave off sparks similar to that of electricity.
With a powerful swing, Stelle collided the empowered bat with the Trampler's head as it soon dispersed into particles.
"Nice teamwork." Hyde walked on over as Stelle turned to face him before nodding. "Is there a reason you keep saying that line though? Don't get me wrong, it's cool, but why?"
"Not sure." Stelle shrugged. "Dan Heng and March do something similar as well."
"Huh... maybe I should make one up. Thought for the future I guess."
"So, is something supposed to happen?" Stelle wondered as she looked around. "I don't see anywhere else we can go."
"Herta, you there?"
{Herta: I was expecting them to appear...}
Herta's avatar appeared next to them once again, this time the expression on the robot showed a look of disappointment.
{Herta: In that case, I'll switch off the Simulated Universe then. It'll only take a second and you two won't feel any pain}
{Herta: We'll talk back in reality}
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Herta?" Hyde narrowed his eyes in confusion as he noticed the lack of response. "Aren't you switching the simulation off?"
{Herta: They came!}
Hyde and Stelle looked confused, though widened their eyes when a familiar looking rift tore through the space in front of them.
{Herta: No, not them... it's another Aeon!}
If Herta said anything else, neither of them heard it as they were now staring at a rather miraculous looking figure.
It was a humanoid figure with a body consisting of countless mirror fragments, and just like with Qlipoth, neither of them could speak at this time.
As they continued looking at this new entity, the fragments on its body seemed to reflect countless memories.
However, they weren't memories belonging to Hyde, these memories were abundant and from all kinds of places.
There seemed to be no end to then, and only after a few moments did both of them hear the voice of the being in front of them.
{Fuli: The robe flutters and wraps around your dark skin, you laugh at exploration. The silk threads spin, overlap, and weave into oceanic words...}
"Wait... let's talk about Kafka!"
Hyde had no idea who this Kafka was that Stelle just shouted, but he didn't pay it much mind as the Aeon soon vanished like Qlipoth did.
After a moment of silence, Herta's voice soon sounded once again as her avatar appeared beside them.
{Herta: We did it!}
{Herta: That was Fuli. They thought you were both Akivili and Long, so they actively started a conversation with you}
{Herta: Fuli is incredibly valuable for our research, they have the memories of all beings and knows as much about everything as Nous does!}
{Herta: I'm taking you guys out, I want to upgrade the Simulated Universe. I'll need you two to stay in there longer in the future!}
Before either of them could respond, a strange force pulled at them with incredible force, to which they soon found their visions fading.
Soon enough, everything went black.
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Hyde slowly found his consciousness coming back to him as he slowly opening his eyes, blinking then a few times as the bright light of the room invaded his eyes.
He also soon noticed that he was back to normal, no longer transformed. It seems that he was forcefully ejected from his transformation after exiting the virtual space.
"Finally awake, huh?"
Looking up, Hyde saw Herta standing there staring down at him. Frowning slightly, Hyde pushed himself off of the ground.
"Ugh, my head hurts after that." Hyde groaned as he gripped the side of his head. "You better not have done anything to our bodies while we were in there."
"Who do you think I am?" Herta questioned. "Then again, I had some ideas."
"Of course you did. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if you gave one of your puppets male genitalia just because you were curious."
"How did you kno- Oh, Stelle's waking up. Finally, didn't really like you two sleeping on the floor of my office."
"..."
Hyde decided not to question anything as he looked over to see Stelle also slowly standing up from the ground, stumbling slightly before quickly catching herself.
"We're... back?"
"Yep, and with a headache as well." Hyde sighed before crossing his arms. "So, Herta. What should we do now?"
"For the time being, you should head off to Himeko and prepare to leave on the Astral Express. In the meantime, I'll be upgrading the Simulated Universe."
"And I'm assuming you want us to go in again..."
"Of course! The next time you come back to the station, the beta test should be all ready to go. Now, get going! I have much work to do."
With that, Herta walked off over to the machine as Stelle and Hyde shared a look. They shook their heads before making their way out of the office.
To be honest, Hyde was not looking forward to coming back anytime soon, especially if he was going to get another damn migraine.
For now, it was time to go!
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"It seems that you two have made up your minds."
Himeko smiled as she saw both Hyde and Stelle making their way over, both of them eyeing the massive train as they did so.
The Astral Express was the biggest damn train Hyde had ever seen, each compartment was a small house at the damn least.
"Alright, you guys are coming with us!"
March appeared out of nowhere behind Hyde and Stelle before she hugged them both around the neck with each of her arms, grinning as she did so.
"We're going to have so much fun together!"
"Calm down, March." Himeko laughed lightly as March released them. "Dan Heng's already inside with Welt, we shouldn't keep them waiting."
Without saying anything else, Himeko gave them an encouraging smile before making her way towards the train.
"Let's go, you two!"
"S-Slow down!"
"No way, adventures await us!"
March grinned as she quickly began pulling them over to the express, grabbing them both by their hands to do so.
As March was pulling them over, Hyde managed to get himself loose as he slowed down before coming to a momentary stop.
Hyde looked up at the express before a small smile graced his lips. He had to admit, he was excited to see what the future had in store.
Something like this never could've happened back in his old world, he was nervous, but just as excited at the same time.
"The Astral Express, huh...?"
"Hyde, hurry up!"
"Yeah, I'm coming!"